(no subject)

I figured I'd get out more, go see some plays, have fun. I signed up to see The Dying Gaul based on the playwright's name alone. Craig Lucas wrote some of my favorite plays that I was fortunate to see premiered at the Berkeley Rep during Sharon Ott's tenure as Artistic Director. OF COURSE the one that I picked to see, via a half-price tix house, turns out to be the Gay Pride feature at a gay theater company featuring a gay-themed play, which is fine, but the play wasn't that good, and it definitely wasn't the milieu I was expecting. 

It's about a playwright whose lover has died of AIDS, who becomes involved with both the studio chief who buys the play to make a movie from it and the studio chief's wife, who pretends to be the playwright's dead lover in the Internet chat room where the playwright socially networks.  It is perhaps the first play ever produced about "sockpuppeting" on the Internet, an unethical, duplicitous practice widely condemned in adult social networking circles, which is possibly interesting as social history. However, the only female character was a evil, manipulative bitch whose actions are minimally supported by the little character development accorded her, a  misogynistic deux ex machina. I couldn't buy that the main character could be that credible, either, and the last act is ridiculous.  Lucas definitely is a good story teller with a good ear for dialogue, but this isn't one of his better plays. I would not recommend it except perhaps to someone researching sockpuppeting, or an another example of how dramatically flat two people sitting at a computer typing to each other can be.   The acting was strong, however, and the compact stage had clever, multi-use set design.

Ben the cat

Hahaha!  Ben the cat is a mink  Tonkinese,  and I just googled to see  what photos I could come up with. Check out, I kid you not, GCH GPR RW Sonham Princes Maria Thunderpussy at http://www.fanciers.com/breed-faqs/tonkinese-faq.shtml. Anyway. He looks similar, but is a bigger,  burlier boy.  He's quite shy, so many of my friends have never seen him. 

5 AM Friday, I thought I'd have to have him put to sleep. He started vomiting, and looked like he felt awful, like he just wanted to die. He's a Kidney Cat, so kidneys gave out? The new vet fit him in,and  I left him overnight  for tests, hooked up to an IV pump.  He came home Sat. afternoon, shaved in patches, looking SO MUCH better and happier. It wasn't his kidneys, his gut is irritated by something unknown. He's on a special diet and YAY veterinary medicine. 

Double yay is finding a new vet.  Months ago, my beloved former vet and everyone in the practice retired after their senior member died on  the premises from a heart attack. I'm not crazy about the senior vet at this other practice (the former back-up vet), but luckily, he was out on Friday and he has new associates.  I liked hearing her thinking on the complicated possibilities, and appreciated an anatomy diagram. 

There's a bunch of stuff going on with litigation over my cousin's estate and it's all very interesting. I am getting SO little work done with all these distractions. Argh.